This unique guide takes strategic planning to a new and more powerful level. It is the only book that integrates the planning process with team decision making and the facilitation skills needed to make them effective. Whether you're getting started or fine-tuning efforts in progress, this comprehensive toolkit-in-a-book will help you make your vision work. It shows how to bend, shape, and modify the conventional strategic planning process to meet your organizations goals. And it delineates the techniques and methods you need to succeed. Examples from actual companies illustrate each step of the process. There are also extensive views of several real-world planning efforts as they evolved over three to five years; these eye-opening cases reveal in depth what worked and what didn't. Moreover, Team-Based Strategic Planning is designed for active use at every stage. You'll find dozens of hands-on tools that will help you as your strategy evolves, including a proven strategic change process model that forecasts expected changes and results over a five-year period; cue cards and flow charts that plot the process and make it easier to master; self-contained facilitator guides for setting priorities, guiding the team to consensus, and using twelve classic techniques to help the team reach its objectives; and troubleshooting advice on problem intervention for CEOs, planning leaders, and facilitators. Team-based strategic planning is intricate and complex. Don't attempt it without an expert guide. From initial concept to final implementation, this is the practical and dynamic resource that you'll consult day after day, year after year.

Future success? or future shock? Only companies that plan ahead will survive the changes in business today--and tomorrow.

In this book, an expert in business strategy shows how to create and evaluate a strategic plan and execute that plan successfully. When it comes to strategic planning, B. Keith Simerson knows from experience what works and what doesn't. Strategic Planning: A Practical Guide to Strategy Formulation and Execution weaves that knowledge into a roadmap for anyone charged with creating a strategic plan, evaluating a strategic planning process, or executing resulting strategies in an effective and efficient way. Not a one-size-fits-all solution, the book offers a menu of information and options based on a broad view of strategic planning and offers correspondingly broad applicability. The guide focuses on two major aspects of the planning process: the multitude of factors contributing to an effective strategic planning framework and the multitude of drivers and enablers of successful execution. Armed with concrete information, readers will learn to create and execute a business strategy, a personal strategic action plan, or strategies for any kind of for-profit or nonprofit organization. Specific methodologies, tools, and techniques will guide readers to successful strategy formation—and execution.

"Preferred Futuring" is a tool designed to bring deeper meaning and spirit into the workplace. This text presents real-life examples to illustrate how this practical process can be used as a tool for leadership, management, process improvement and organization alignment.

When Fortune Magazine estimated that 70% of all strategies fail, it also noted that most of these strategies were basically sound, but could not be executed. The central premise of Strategic Project Management Made Simple is that most projects and strategies never get off the ground because of adhoc, haphazard, and obsolete methods used to turn their ideas into coherent and actionable plans. Strategic Project Management Made Simple is the first book to couple a step-by-step process with an interactive thinking tool that takes a strategic approach to designing projects and action initiatives. Strategic Project Management Made Simple builds a solid platform upon four critical questions that are vital for teams to intelligently answer in order to create their own strong, strategic foundation. These questions are: 1. What are we trying to accomplish and why? 2. How will we measure success? 3. What other conditions must exist? 4. How do we get there? This fresh approach begins with clearly understanding the what and why of a project - comprehending the bigger picture goals that are often given only lip service or cursory reviews. The second and third questions clarify success measures and identify the risky assumptions that can later cause pain if not spotted early. The how questions - what are the activities, budgets, and schedules - comes last in our four-question system. By contrast, most project approaches prematurely concentrate on the how without first adequately addressing the three other questions. These four questions guide readers into fleshing out a simple, yet sophisticated, mental workbench called "the Logical Framework" - a Systems Thinking paradigm that lays out one's own project strategy in an easily accessible, interactive 4x4 matrix. The inclusion of memorable features and concepts (four critical questions, LogFrame matrix, If-then thinking, and Implementation Equation) make this book unique.

Think and act strategically every time In today's business environment, strategic planning stresses the importance of making decisions that will ensure an organization's ability to successfully respond to changes in the environment and plan for sustainable viability. Providing practical, field-tested techniques and a complete 6-phase plan, Strategic Planning Kit For Dummies shows you how to make strategy a habit for all organizations, no matter the size, type, or resource constraints. Strategic Planning Kit For Dummies is for companies of all types and sizes looking to build and sustain a competitive edge, set up an ongoing process for market assessment and trend analysis, and develop a vision for future growth. This revised edition includes: new and updated content on planning for both the short and the long-term; crucial information on succession planning; help preparing for the unexpected using scenario planning and agile strategy; strategies for implementing change and integrating strategic plans successfully by involving all staff members; and more. The supplementary CD lays out a comprehensive, 6-phase, step-by-step program, complete with downloadable spreadsheets, charts, checklists, video links, and more Provides value for any business or entrepreneur looking to improve efficiency, focus, and competitive edge Includes practical, field-tested techniques Strategic Planning Kit For Dummies gives today's business owners and upper-level management the tools and information they need to think and act strategically in order to more effectively weather current economic storms while planning for future growth.

"Great teams are comprised of ordinary people that are empowered and inspired. They are empowered to solve hard problems in ways their customers love yet work for their business. They are inspired with ideas and techniques for quickly evaluating those ideas to discover solutions that work: they are valuable, usable, feasible and viable. This book is about the idea and reality of "achieving extraordinary results from ordinary people". Empowered is the companion to Inspired. It addresses the other half of the problem of building tech products?how to get the absolute best work from your product teams. However, the book's message applies much more broadly than just to product teams. Inspired was aimed at product managers. Empowered is aimed at all levels of technology-powered organizations: founders and CEO's, leaders of product, technology and design, and the countless product managers, product designers and engineers that comprise the teams. This book will not just inspire companies to empower their employees but will teach them how. This book will help readers achieve the benefits of truly empowered teams"--